Along with public trust. The House Committee on the judiciary will come to order. Without objection, the judge is authorized to declare recesses at any time. We welcome everyone to the oversight hearing on Police Practices. Before we begin, i want to briefly recognize susan jensen whose last day on the committee after 20 mores of service is tomorrow. Susan is highly respected on both sides of the aisle, is one of the preeminent experts on bankruptcy Administrative Law and the federal court system. It is a testament to her knowledge and fairness that she worked as counsel and later senior counsel for both republican and democratic chairs of this committee. First hired by former chair henry hyde for her expertise in bankruptcy law, susan later moved to the democratic staff under former chair and Ranking Member john conners where she expanded her portfolio to include Administrative Law and ethics issues. When i was elected to serve as chair, i also asked susan to serve as the community parliament. It included preparing reports and working across to aisle for markups and other committee activities. Regular viewers of this committee will recognize her as the person sitting behind me providing me wise counsel. Susan has been essential to the operations of this committee and she has been involved in nearly every piece of Committee Business over the last year. Although she will be leaving the commit, she will continue to Public Service as they transitioned to a position with the Administrative Office of the u. S. Courts. I wish you well and i thank you for all your years of service to this committee. You now recognize the Ranking Member for any comments he may have. Thank you. Theres so many things we do agree and this is one. As you just mentioned a minute ago, the two of our faces are on the screens of america a great deal, the greatest part about it is susan being behind us to soften the blow and make sure that i behave. Sometimes shell disagree and she can make you and i Work Together. Shes been amazing to work with. They know our faces and the members and they see these folks behind us, the folks behind us on both sides are a mission. The staffs of democratic and republican members have to put up with us, but in a Committee Role like this, you have been a friend, you are probably the one that i hear the name most often when i say john, he says well, susan called. Was i in trouble . And she said no. But susan, youre going to be missed and it will be hard to turn around and not see you here. But i am so happy for you. The beneficiary here is what youve done for the committee, but also what the Administrative Office of the courts is going to do. Theyre gaining, were losing and we acknowledge that. With that, i yield back to the chairman. I thank the gentleman. [ applause ] i thank the gentleman for his comments and i will now recognize myself for an opening statement. Todays hearing furthers our committees longstanding commitment to conducting meaningful oversight of state and federal Law Enforcement as initiated by former chairman and his establishment of the bipartisan policing stat jees working group. Together we have had productive conversations with improving relations between Law Enforcement officers and the communities they serve. And today we continue that important discussion. Without question, the vast majority of Law Enforcement officers serve honorably under difficult conditions, often risking and sometimes losing their lives to protect us. There have been, however, a disturbing number of incidents of Excessive Force used by police against civilians, many of whom were unarmed, most of whom were people of color and many resulted in tragic death that have put incredible strain on the relationships between Law Enforcement and their local communities. For example, on july 17th, 2014, five new York City PoliceDepartment Officers attempted to arrest eric garner, a 42yearold father of six, for allegedly selling loose cigarettes, by tackling him to the ground and placing him a an illegal choke hold. He repeatedly told the officers, i cant breathe. The officers ignored his pleas as he slipped into unconsciousness and death. No one was held criminally responsible for mr. Garners death. We are fortunate to be joined by mr. Garners mother, and i say to you that the criminal Justice System and the Justice System failed you, your son and your entire family. Shockingly, the officer responsible for placing mr. Garner in a departmentally banned choke hold remained on the force for five years before being finally fired this past august. On september 9th, 2015, james blake, an africanamerican, professional tennis player was standing outside a hotel in mid town manhattan when an officer charged him, wrestled him to the ground and placed him in handcuffs. New yorks civilian complaint board and review agency that reviews complaints of policemens conduct terms that the policeman used Excessive Force and recommended that the officer be punished with departmental disciplinary charges that could lead to suspension or dismissal. Instead his only punishment was to lose five vacation days. Mr. Garners death and the assault on mr. Blake, both at the hands of Police Officers sworn to protect and serve, should alarm all americans regardless of party, regardless of political ideology, regardless of race, religion or gender. This is not a partisan issue. There are no sides. Too often, the discourse on policemens conduct deskrends into a dichotomy of us versus them, black lives blue lives versus black lives. This is a false and dangerous dichotomy. The United States stands as the worlds greatest experiment in self government. Legitimacy rests on the consent of its people, we the people. This principle particularly applies to Law Enforcement, which has been given the authority to use deadly force under cover of law. There can be no doubt, unfortunately, that communities of color perceive Law Enforcement as a threat to their everyday freedoms. These perceptions go back decades, predating both the 1994 los angeles riots and the 1965 riots, both of which were sparked by a lack of accountability for incidents of Police Brutality. These perceptions are reality for africanamericans, according to the center for policing equity, africanamericans are two to four times more likely than white americans to have force used against them. For far too long, claims of misconduct coming from communities of color have often been ignored or not believed. Mr. Garners killing and a series of other examples of Police Misconduct against africanamericans, many of which were caught on video, make it unmistakenly clear that claims of Police Misconduct are all too often real. To list just a few, on august 5th, 2014, John Crawford was shot and killed by a Police Officer in a Walmart Store in beavercreek, ohio for holding a toy bb gun. On august 9th, 2014, Michael Brown who was unarmed was shot and killed by police in ferguson, missouri. On november 22nd, 2014, 12yearold ta mere rice who was unarmed was shot and killed by police in cleveland, ohio. On april 2nd, 2015, eric harris who was unarmed was shot and killed by police in tulsa, oklahoma. On april 4th, 2015, walter scott who was unarmed was shot and killed by police in north charleston, south carolina. On april 19th, 2015, freddy gray who was unarmed died in Police Custody in baltimore, maryland. On july 6th, 2016, samuel was shot and killed by police in cincinnati, ohio. The frequency of these killings and the absence of full accountability for those responsible sent a message to members of the Africanamerican Community that black lives do not matter. Let me state clearly for the record that black lives matter. Our criminal Justice System, including our preeolice departms cannot function unless people believe the system works to protect them. We must also be able to put ourselves in the shoes of our Law Enforcement officers. We must be able to celebrate the service and sacrifices of our men and women in Law Enforcement who put their lives on the line day in and day out. We must recognize the psychological toll that serving in such an inherently dangerous job can take on individual Law Enforcement officers and their families. It is also critical that we not paint Law Enforcement with a broad brush. The vast majority of officers execute their jobs with dignity, honor and respect for the citizens they serve and protect. Every american should take pride in that. Research shows that a small percentage of repeat offenders are responsible for the majority of incidents of misconduct. Todays hearing presents a unique opportunity for us to hear from some of the individuals of families affected by Police Misconduct. So i want to personally thank ms. Carr for speaking at this hearing on behalf of her son and mr. Blake for sharing his personal story with us. Today presents an opportunity for us to explore Bipartisan Solutions to make policing a safer more fulfilling job for Law Enforcement officers by restoring the trust and goodwill between police and the communities they serve. We can reexamine the efficacy of reforms and determine what further solutions are warranted. For example, we should examine whether the incentives created by the doctrine of qualified immunity remain useful in todays environment. We should consider legislative proposals to end racial profiling and to restore trust between Law Enforcement and the community. And we should explore ways to strengthen Data Collection on use of force and racial profiling so that Police Departments can measure the practices they manage. But most important, we can all agree that too testimony lives are put at risk and have been lost in Police Citizen encounters and that it is incumbent on each of us to Work Together as fellow americans to solve this problem. I tharcnk all of our witnesses r appearing and i look forward to their testimony. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the judiciary committee, the gentleman from georgia, mr. Collins for his opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate that. And before i get started i would like to add a letter from the Detectives Association of new york and also the National Police association for the record. Without objection. Thank you. I appreciate the chairmans opening and i think you covered a great deal of stuff. For me, and i have a lot of notes here and i think one of the things to start out this, is it is very important that Excessive Force where used ought to be punished. It should not be thought about, it should be punished. It should be acted on quibble and not drug out. If its in a Minority Community in particular or any other community, it needs to be looked at and processed and done so in a fair way to all involved so that there is justice, there is responsibility so that people do trust. But the one thing that i do want to focus on and the chairman did a good job, because it is very fair that theres a lot of things that have happened in communities that raise a lot of concerns. We even on this committee have a job to look over and say how do we fix this. And theres actually officers on this committee that i serve with and mr. Denny is one of those who have put on the uniform and been out there. I do want to emphasize and i think this is why we have this hearing today, because im going to take it from a perspective that i dont think anybody wants to see justice go unserved. And i think the interesting perspective here is my perspective that there is no one that wants the bad actors out of Law Enforcement more than Law Enforcement itself. Im the son of a Georgia State trooper. I made the joke before that i fought the law and the law won every time, okay. 62 t 250 pounds in a blue and gray uniform, i was a skrauny kid from gainesville. Daddy loved us, but he was in georgia, and he would come home. Im the little kid that would watch dad go out to work and when he would on come home at night, he would come in with his uniform torn and blood on his collar. How does that affect an 8 or 9yearold kid . Thats my daddy. Thats the man that to this day, hes a big teddy bear now because of grandchildren, but this is the man that i admire to this day. I am who i am because of him. And what would happen, my dad was a strong man and is a strong man, and one of the interesting things that i always found was is when something would go wrong with an officer and we had an officer in georgia who was a Georgia State trooper who i knew personally who, and im attempted to call it a mistake. Its not. He had a sexual encounterwith someone in his custody and hes in jail. He was punished for it. You know whats more amazing to me was my dads reaction to that. My dad came home and he was upset, he was mad, i could tell it because the chairman talked about how this plays out in the police force. It played out at home because my dad came home and didnt talk about it. There are people in this country who want bad actors who do bad things in the police force out of the police force themselves. And as someone who understands this and watch my father live it every day, when he was painted because of others, then it affects everybody. In a highrisk, many times lowreward area. Some of the things i would love to see us talk about, the thin blue line separates us from chaos. No one in our country should not look at our police force and know this is what keeps us safe, no matter what we are or our beliefs or the color of our skin. It is what keeps us different than the rest of the world. An Orderly Police force that carries out our laws faithfully. But too often i served on that Police Working group and ive been all over the country in georgia and other places, and we have problems in our police force because theres so many folks who are bad actors and get pushed from one job to another. Youve got bad actors who cant make it at one job and they go to another police force, yeah, do you know him, hes got another job. The one police chief is saying thank god and the other one is saying i dont know what ive got into. You know why . Because of pay, benefits, the issues of communities. I live in a Rural Community in north georgia and the kids who live in some of my smaller counties, theyre going to go to work with the Sheriffs Department that theyre making an amount that they can go 40 miles down the road and double their salary. They know they can go somewhere else and get another job no matter what their record is. When we come to this hearing today it does need to be a hearing of what ill call the terrible acts. We need to acknowledge them and admit that Justice Needs to be served. But there is nothing about this hearing that the 98 or 99, whatever percent you want to do of those men and women who wake up every day with only one responsibility, taking care of their communities. And taking care of the lives that they have. And they want nothing more than these bad actors to go away so that they can do their job. And when they lay their head down at night, they know theyve done their best and they want to be wrpd because they have done their job and not because somebody else has acted badly. When that happens, then our Law Enforcement understands that we respect them, we love them and were going to help them when they need help. And for every other 10yearold kid who watches their dad go out not knowing if theyre going to come home or when they do come home, theyre beat up and battered because they were out helping others. And when they see their dad or their mom upset because their profession, their calling is tarnished by those who would tarnish it, justice must be swift, it must be firm and fairly applied. Because if not, we lose who we are. We would not be who we are without poour police force. We now need to help them make it better. With that, i yield back. I thank the gentleman. Without objection, all Opening Statements will be included in the record. I want to note that the gentle lady from massachusetts, ms. Pressley is with us and we thank her for attending. I will now introduce todays witnesses. Gwen carr is the mother of eric garner who died during his arrest by Police Officers<